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LAST YEARS RECORD:109-53 (Division Winner and a Back to Back World Series win)
LAST YEARS PREVIEW: Look out Fer Them Bears! Olemiss bested my 100 win prediction and finished with 105. They did wreak havoc in the playoffs and brought a World Series Trophy to Jackson. Congrats Olemiss ,well done. Last year the Black Bears had the #1 pitching staff with w ERA of 3.36 and a WHIP of 1.20. They also had the 3rd best defensive squad with only 75 errors and a FPct of .988. Their hitting was average at best with .258 BA (26th) and 857 runs (10th) scored. Looks like pitching and defense will win every time. And if you manufacture enough runs....well then you have Championship Team.The pickup of Butler ( who I tried to trade for) will make a very good bullpen great. It was a pricey pick-up,but after Suarez got injured last year, he was tradeable. Dillon was brought in to shore up the catching corps, and he does have 3 rings with Burlington, so he's no slouch. The Black Bears are the team to beat in Wrigleyville. They will get competition from the others in this division but should win it. The World Series is another story...... Anything can happen in the post season.I would be surprised if they didn't play in the Series again. PREDICTION:103-59(N L Champ)
OUT: R.J. Roque , Hick Boucher , Geraldo Cruz
IN: None
OLEMISS'S PREVIEW: We are going with the same exact guys offensively. The only pitching addition is calling up Marc Dean to fill the LRA role.Prospects on the way in the next season or so are Esmailyn Campos Pedro OlmedoBenji Torres Cesar Gutierrez Julio Maciasand Jim Hannity .
PREVIEW: No surprise here, the World Champs repeated and were never really challenged. They won the division and 109 games with the best pitching in Wrigleyville, by far. With pitching that good they didn't need a good offense (13th in the N L) or defense (10th in the N L) to win it all. Olemiss's team went into the playoffs as the #1 seed and beat the Moose in the DCS. Then they took on my Zoids in the National League Championship game. And after I won the first two games , the Black Bears won the next four. I was Dead Meat!! In the World Series the Black Bears dispatched the Cinderella Salmonbellies in 5 games to claim another Ring. In the off-season Roque and Boucher went to free agency and Cruz was released. There were no spots open after the 3 players went to free agency. And frankly none were needed. This is the same back-to back Championship Team this year. If it ain't broke no need to fix it. Last year I picked the Black Bears to win the National League Championship ,not this year.My Ziods will beat them LOL. PREDICTION:106-56(Division Winner)
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LAST YEARS RECORD:79-83
LAST YEARS PREVIEW: Wylie's City Limits had a very good year and finished close to my predictions. They won 92 games with good hitting (.269 BA-12th, 851 runs-11th) and pitching (4.09 ERA-9th, 1.33 WHIP-8th). the defense was porous with a 109 errors (24th) and a FPct of .983 (24th). Austin went into the playoffs as a wildcard and trounced my Zoids in the first round 3 games to 1. Not surprised here, he trounced me in the regular season also. Then in the DCS they met up with the #1 seeded Muskellunges and lost in 4.This is the same good young team with another year of experience. They will battle for the division crown and will need Jackson to stumble in order to win it. Wylie's warriors should make the playoffs and are dangerous with very good pitching.PREDICTION:96-66(Wild Card)
OUT: Al Zerbe , Rafael Pimentel , Bob Liverman , Morgan Hebert , Jason Perez
IN: Javy Torcato , Xavier Cain , Jack Brooks , Glenn Ratliff , Rusty Hoffman , Bronson Livingstone
WYLIE'S PREVIEW: "I've given up trying to predict what this team will do. They could go 100-62 or they could go 62 - 100...or anything in between. Your guess is as good as mine. Actually, your guess is probably better than mine."
PREVIEW: Wylie can't understand why his City Limits played so badly. And Neither can I!! Last year they did so well. I thought with most of the same bunch back and a little more experience...well ...they would be just as good. They only won 79 games with poor pitching (13th in the NL) and hitting (11th in the NL). On the other hand Wylie's defense was pretty good, ranked 5th in the National League. In the off-season Zerbe, Pimentel and Liverman left for free agency and Herbert and Perez were released. Wylie plugged the holes with free agents Torcato, Cain and Crawford and promoted Brooks and Ratliff. He picked up Hoffman and Livingstone in the R-5 to fill out this years roster. Wylie lost pitching this year including 2 of my former rotation pitchers (Zerbe and Liveman).He replaced them with a solid SP (Torcato) and a wild R-5 guy (Hoffman). The 2 are opposite and one cancels out the other. The addition of Cain and Brooks make a good defense great. The City Limits are like a Box Of Chocolates ,You never know what your gonna get. (thanks Forrest Gump). Average Year methinks (thanks Yoda).Yoda Gump says.PREDICTION: 81-81
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LAST YEARS RECORD:75-87
LAST YEARS PREVIEW: Wish's Juggernauts finished below my guess...er .....prediction of 84 wins. Still 79 wins are a improvement from the previous season. They did this with very good defense (83 errors-6th, .986 FPct-6th) a decent pitching (4.38 ERA-12th, 1.38 WHIP-14th) . The hitting is lagging but not terrible (.264 BA-21st, 750 runs-22nd).The Juggernauts game is pitching and defense . If they can score enough runs Jacksonville may make the playoffs. Having to battle 2 tough teams in their division doesn't help. For that reason, I'm inclined to believe this team will miss the playoffs.PREDICTION:81-81
OUT: James Lee , Danys Mota , Bert Nathan
IN: Wiki Ordonez , Shou Masato
PREVIEW: Wish keeps waiting for his team to break the .500 mark, and so do I. It doesn't help playing in a good division with the 2-time Champ. In the end the Juggernauts could only win 75 games due to average pitching (9th in the N L) and hitting (10th in the N L). The defense (5th in the N L) as always was stellar and it's something to build on. In the off-season Lee and Mota left to free agency and Nathan was released. With only a couple roster spots open, Wish promoted Ordonez and Masato. Jacksonville has several good prospects in AAA waiting for "the phone call". Right now this team is a .500 team but maybe some youngsters will get the call and the Juggernauts will win about 87 games. PREDICTION:81-81 or 87-75
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LAST YEARS RECORD:68-94
LAST YEARS PREVIEW: Missed this one! Jmas's major overhaul didn't go well. The Stars only managed 75 wins and this may be due to playing in a tough division. But that's not the only reason, lack of timely hitting and run support was their downfall. Last year Tampa Bay had average hitting (.265 BA-18th, 718 runs-26th) and pitching (4.38 ERA-13th,1.39 WHIP-16th) with good defense (85 errors-8th, .986 FPct-8th). This poor season led Jmas to go back into retirement. Svick bought the team for a Netflix gift certificate and a Commodore 64 game console.That should keep Jmas entertained in his survival bunker.Forget last year stats, all of last years players are gone and replaced with waiver claims, R-5's , low level free agents and young prospects from the minors.This is a house gutting and re-build plain and simple. Svick slashed 50 million in contracts and has 30 million in player cap space.While picking up prospects and getting younger. He may transfer money and pick up some tasty IFA's . Or if his team does well early, pick up some high dollar waiver wire cast-offs. I had to go to the Magic 8-ball for my prediction. PREDICTION: 68-94
OUT: Derrek O'Brien , Justin Peterman , Matty Cruz , Albert Perez , Vic Ramirez , Ramiro Osoria , Vladimir Gonzales
IN: Chien-Ming Chang , Hideki Ma , Philip Haney , Dan Long , Esteban Campos , Francisco Campos , Derrick Sanders , Albert Sandoval , Felix Ming
PREVIEW: My Magic 8-Ball was on the spot!! It correctly predicted a 68 win season for the Rays. This team was in re-build mode last year and Svick picked up several prospects for the future. He picked up Joaquin Palmeiro in the draft and in the IFA Market he bought Ismael Lorenzo and Angel Nunez and many others. In the off-season O'Brien, Peterman, Cruz, Perez and Ramirez went to free agency. Osoria was released and Gonzales was plucked from the waiver wire. To fill the holes Svick signed free agents Chang, Ma, Haney,Long and Campos and he promoted Campos and Sanders. Finally he traded for Sandoval and Ming. You know I like the direction this team is heading and they may surprise us this year. Svick brought in a bunch of good players and if they don't break the .500 mark then maybe next year. To hell with next year...Going out on a limb here. PREDICTION:82-80
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